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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28827714">Autumn Memory</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatMotif/pseuds/KatMotif'>KatMotif</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>RWBY</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Arkos w/ Background Renorarc/Berries, Biography Writing, F/M, First Loves, Grief/Mourning, Memories, Moving On, Post-Canon, Pyrrha's Dead but They All Still Love Her, This is the first fic I've ever cried writing, headcanons galore, memorializing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:40:39</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,049</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28827714</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatMotif/pseuds/KatMotif</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the little things that still reminded Jaune of Pyrrha, even after everything is said and done. Even after he's moved on, the autumn would always bring memories of her back to him. But he's inspired by her memory.</p><p>(Post Canon, Post Arkos w/ Background Renorarc (Hinted JNPR Berries))</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jaune Arc/Lie Ren/Nora Valkyrie, Jaune Arc/Pyrrha Nikos</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Autumn Memory</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This wasn't a happy fic when I'd started writing it, but I'm glad it came out that way. Maybe it's the part of me that's experienced loss and having had to move on from it. Maybe I wish I could memorialize the person I'd lost like this. Maybe after five years, I still really miss Pyrrha (and Arkos to a greater extent). I didn't want this to just be about Jaune's loss of her though; hence the berry hints w/ Ren and Nora, hence the other characters mentioned getting involved. I have the idea to maybe also attempt to actually write the "book" itself out, but that'd be quite the task. Then again it wouldn't be the first time I wrote a really long fic lol. We'll see. (And yes, I had to call it...well you'll see.)</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>The autumn always reminded Jaune of </span>
  <em>
    <span>her</span>
  </em>
  <span>. The red leaves remind him of her hair; long and curled and well maintained, almost always up in a high ponytail. It had been so long since he’d last heard her laugh. He still had that short training vid on his scroll, which he would never delete no matter how long it’d been. He still wore her red sash around his waist, more tattered the older it got, the more fights he’d worn in through. It was the little things he couldn’t bring himself to let go of.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He couldn’t smell seafood without thinking about how much she loved it; especially that one dish with the shellfish and the rice that he couldn’t remember the name of. He’d tried once and thought his mouth was going to burn from how spicy it was. Black tea was something else that reminded him of her too, as she drank it all the time. He even still remembered the specific brand she used.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He hadn’t had a bowl of Pumpkin Pete’s in years; once his favorite cereal, now a reminder of her. Even though they’d long since stopped using her face on their boxes, the cheery bunny mascot taking her place. Not that she was particularly fond of the sugary cereal herself, but it was still something that brought her back to him. She had borrowed his sweater with the mascot’s face once or twice.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The smell of cinnamon and apple candles. Launching Nora off his shield as she used to do. Jogs in the mornings, his haphazard attempts at trying yoga. Apple cider, or any food related to the fall. The combination of gold and red, gladiator sandals, bohemian style clothes like her casual wear. Sunny beach days and fishing, soft pop music, they all reminded him of Pyrrha.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>But after a while, he realized it didn’t hurt to be reminded of her. Well, it was less painful and more bittersweet, almost. There would always be a part of Jaune that would miss Pyrrha, no matter how many years went by, how much smaller details would seem to fade. When he found himself struggling to remember her voice, he would just watch the video again, but this was something he was doing less often with time. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Yes, maybe the wound of his heart break, the loss of her, it would never fully heal. If your heart being broken could leave scars, he was sure his heart had a big scar across it. But life would go on; he still had the others. He still had love in his life; he had been with Nora and Ren for some time, becoming the third in their relationship. Their hands would hold each of his own when they would return to Argus and visit her memorial once a year. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Eventually Jaune gets an idea; he grabs a notebook while grocery shopping one day. He writes down everything he knew about Pyrrha, everything that he can remember. How they met, how she saved him from dying during initiation by pinning him to a tree with her spear and the hood of his sweater (that he had somewhere still but it didn’t fit anymore). How she was the first person to believe he could even be a huntsman, helping him train and teaching him the basics he’d never learned. The night at the dance where he wore a dress because she couldn’t get a date and he was a man of his word.</span>
</p><p>
  <span> He asks Ren and Nora to add things too; he finds from reading their entries that they loved her as much as he does, and his heart swells. Nora writes of their girl taks and how silly they both were about the boys that they’d loved. Of how she missed her laugh and her smile and how the taller girl would pick her up when they’d hugged. Ren writes some recipes they’d learned together and how studious and dedicated she truly was to being a huntress. Of how beautiful she never seemed to realize she was, how wistful he was that they hadn’t been as close. </span>
</p><p>
  <span>Upon Jaune’s insistence, their friends add excerpts as well; their friends from Team RWBY, other classmates of hers from both Beacon and Sanctum. Family that he can find (it was her mother that he’d met at her memorial, it’d turned out). Even some people she’d competed against at her competitions. Publishing the stories had been something Jaune was a little reluctant to do at first; but he realized a lot of what was shared showed another side to Pyrrha that she had wished more people had seen. It felt like he was fulfilling a final wish. She had always wanted people to see her for who she was and not just for her accomplishments after all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Of course he’d asked for everyone’s permission first; some more personal details would be omitted by some people, of course. Nobody asked to be left out of the project. Ruby recommended her own publisher (she’d been writing books since Salem’s defeat, when she wasn’t still doing huntress things of course) and they set a release day; September 27th, her birthday. It would be called “Forever Fall”. Proceeds would go to a scholarship her mother and Sanctum Academy had started not too long after her death.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Upon the release day, the leaves had just started turning and the wind was already crisp. The cover was a painting that a fan had done of her for the project, one that captured her so well that Jaune had nearly cried when he’d received it; he later would hang a framed print of it in their home office. He’d written the foreword himself, pouring his heart into it. Now he’d had a hardcover copy of it on the desk, unopened just yet; he’d read everything thousands of times over the past few months anyway.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Jaune had had the window open that day; it was a bit stuffy in the office at times and fresh air was always welcome. A breeze blew in, and a red leaf blew into the room, landing directly on top of the book. Jaune smiled, and his eyes brimmed once more with tears. He could almost hear her voice in his head.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Hello again.</span>
  </em>
</p>
  </div></div>
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